Chennai: With the number of asthma cases on the rise, doctors stress on the need for right medication for the same.
But lack of asthma counsellors in the city has resulted in 90 per cent of the patients not following the right method of taking their inhalers, doctors say.
Despite the fact that diagnosis of the disease is purely clinical, patients try to depend on self-medication or go to general practioners for advice.
“A general physician takes the role of a pulmanologist in places where a specialist is not available and he usually provides improper treatment,” said Dr V. Sundar, Senior Pulmanologist, Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.
“About 90 per cent of the cases I see are of those coming with improper usage of their inhaler, which is due to the fact that the patient is unaware of how to use it correctly,” he said. Asthmatics are usually prescribed two kinds of medicines – reliever or rescuer, and the controller. “In most cases, the patient uses the rescuer, but fails to take the controller on a regular basis,” said Dr P. Ramesh, a pulmanologist. Most general practitioners tend to prescribe only the rescuer to ensure immediate recovery, he said.
“More often than not, even if a patient is prescribed the right inhalers, they are not taught the proper technique of using the inhaler. When taken incorrectly, most of the drug is lost outside, while only 20-30 per cent of the drug gets deposited in the lungs. In 90 per cent of the cases, the patients are not taught the proper technique,” said Dr J. Peters, a senior pulmanologist from Vellore.
Asthma counsellors are not seen in most hospitals in the state as it is considered a luxury. Though proved helpful to train patients on the usage of the inhalers, doctors try to manage it on their own, despite not having adequate time.
With very few hospitals like the Christian Medical College, Vellore, stressing on the need for the patients to meet their asthma counsellors, patients around the state end up using their inhalers incorrectly, resulting in more problems.
